


before the sun comes up

by coeurdalene



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, Post Wrestlemania 31
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 22:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3745999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coeurdalene/pseuds/coeurdalene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seth is so immersed in his thoughts, that almost jumps off the bed when he hears a loud knock on the door.</p><p>He thinks it’s probably Joey and Jamie that couldn’t wait until tomorrow to celebrate with him. So he goes to open, without checking first, and almost gasps when he sees who's out there.</p><p>Definitely not Joey and Jamie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	before the sun comes up

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've ever written anything in my life so please be nice.  
> Also, let's pretend Seth says "I'm Sorry" instead of "Thank you so much" when he pins Roman, okay? Okay.

Seth can still hear the crowd chanting his name when he walks through the curtain.

He dit it! _He did it!_

A whole lifetime of sacrifices has finally paid off. He’s finally where he’s always wanted to be. He realized his dream. He won and shut everybody up and showed them that Seth Rollins is the fucking best.

And they loved every second of it. 

More than seventy thousand people cheering for him as he got his hand raised is something that will be printed in his memory forever. 

He feels like he’s about to explode.

As soon as he gets backstage, Seth is met by a large crowd of staff members and co-workers. He’s left without words, really. They’re all there, each and every one of them, even the ones who hate him. And they’re applauding him, someone’s even smiling at him as he walks throught them. 

He can feel tears starting to form in his eyes when Daniel Bryan steps away from the others and gives him a tight hug, saying “I alwas knew you were gonna be big one day.” Bryan probably doesn’t realize just how much those words mean to him.

His voice is shaking, but Seth manages to throw out a “Thank you! Thank you so much!”, and he’s not even sure it’s loud enough for the other to hear.

He knows that most of them don’t like him as a person anymore- and with all the shit he gives those guys all the time, Seth can’t really blame them- so them being here can only mean that they respect him as a performer, they recognize his talent, and that’s what matters the most to him. 

When Bryan lets him go, he quickly thanks everyone else and goes back to his locker room, where Triple H and Stephanie are waiting for him. They hug him and talk about what an epic moment that was. They tell him that there is a nice club not far from the arena where they can all go celebrate, but Seth says no. 

He plans on spending the whole night staring at the belt until he convinces himself that yes, it is real. He _is_ the new World Heavyweight Champion. 

They understand. 

When he goes out, he finds them waiting at the car, along with Joey, Jamie, Kane and Big Show. They open a bottle of Champagne on the ride back to the hotel, and when they get there, they leave him alone to do his things and tell him they’ll see him tomorrow.

He meets people on the way to his room but his head is still in the clouds and doesn’t fully register what they say to him. He responds with "Thank you so much" and "I really appreciate it" though, so it mustn’t be that bad. Probably more compliments.

When he gets in his room, he leans against the door, closes his eyes and finally _breathes _. It feels like he hasn’t been breathing for hours.__

Seth stays there for a while, just taking long deep breaths until his chest starts burning. He doesn't know how much time passes before he moves to finally go sit on the bed, with his back against the headboard. He crosses his legs and puts the title in his lap and God, it's so beautiful.

Seth starts grinning, and probably looks like an idiot right now, but he couldn’t care less.

He's the Champion dammit!

He grabs his phone and goes through his texts, his ego definitely doesn’t need it tonight- it’s big enough on its own- but Seth still wants to see what people are sending him. So he scrolls down without really opening any of them, just to see who actually reached out to him, and stops immediately when he sees that there is one from Roman. 

The same Roman he just pinned in the middle of the ring. The guy he stabbed in the back and hasn’t talked to in ten months.

Except for the " _I’m sorry _” he whispered right before the pin.__

Seth doesn’t know what happened out there. He’d been talking the whole day with Triple H about the possibility of cashing in tonight, but it was only after that last curb stomp, when he went down for the pin, that Seth finally realized he was actually doing it. That he was about to become the new Champ.

And Roman wasn’t. 

Back in the day they used to spend countless nights and car rides- along with Dean- talking about this, the moment when they’d get everything they always wanted. When they’d have the prove that all the missed birthdays, the lost friends and the hard work and sacrifices were actually worth it. And now he was literally stealing that moment away from him.

Seth knew that this is how it works, but it bothered him anyway. So he apologized, because he had to. And he hopes the microphones didn’t pick it up, that was just for the two of them to hear.

_You deserve it. I’m happy for you. ___

That’s what the text says. Seth can also read a _But you better watch your back because i’m coming after you _hidden in there, and it’s okay. He knew it already.__

Seth guesses that when Roman sent the text, he was probably thinking about the same things he was when he said ‘I’m sorry’ out there, and the thought makes him smile nostalgically. They might be enemies right now but apparently neither of them has forgotten what they were before. And there are so many things Seth wants to tell him but doesn’t know how, and he doesn’t want to end up with a simple ‘Thank you’, so he doesn’t reply at all.

He knows anyway. Roman _knows_.

He gets up, carefully placing his shiny new title on the bed, and goes for a shower instead. Cold water on his skin feels good, so good. Seth stands there with his back against the wall and replays over and over in his head what happened a couple of hours ago, and he still can’t believe it. He needs to hurry up and get out of here because he’s almost afraid that when he goes back to the room the belt won’t be there anymore and it was all in his head.

So Seth quickly steps out of the shower, dries himself and puts on a pair of gym shorts and a shirt. He walks back in the main room and nope, it wasn’t in his head, the belt is right where he left it and he sighs in relief.

Fuck, happiness makes him stupid.

It’s late, and he has a flight to catch in the morning, he should go to sleep. What Seth does, instead, is spending the next two hours on his phone, answering calls and texts. He also checks Twitter and reads all the comments that various WWE Legends have made about him. People he grew up watching, his _heroes _, and he can’t remember the last time he felt so accomplished and proud of himself.__

Seth is so immersed in his thoughts, that almost jumps off the bed when he hears a loud knock on the door.

He thinks it’s probably Joey and Jamie that couldn’t wait until tomorrow to celebrate with him. So he goes to open, without checking first, and almost gasps when he sees who's out there.

Definitely not Joey and Jamie.

Seth blinks a couple of times to make sure he’s not having visions, because standing out of his door there’l is Dean, and he doesn’t look like he’s here to cut his head off. 

Seth is pretty sure the other man must have a really bad concussion from that bump he took on the ladder earlier that night, otherwise this wouldn’t be happening right now. 

They stare at each other for what feels like hours until Dean walks inside without waiting for an invitation. Seth should be mad at the lack of manners, or at least annoyed, but somehow he’s not, so he lets it go and closes the door behind him.

This used to happen all the time when they were in The Shield.

It started a couple of months after their debut. They’d meet in one of their rooms and they’d hang out, have sex or just sleep together, finding comfort in each other.

Seth doesn’t know what they were. Not friends, or even brothers. They could feel that there was so much more there, but neither of them has ever had the guts to do something about it. So they’d ignored the feeling and kept doing what they did, until Seth decided to put an end to it by slamming a chair to Dean’s back.

Truth is, he misses it.

Seth will never admit it out loud but yeah, he misses Dean. He doesn’t regret what he did, he’s perfectly happy with the decision he made. Seth knew exactly that his actions had consequences and he was prepared to face them and bury every feeling he had for the other man, if that was what he needed to do. And so he did.

Sometimes though, after long and busy days, Seth finds himself in bed wishing he could have him by his side, could hold him in his arms, kiss him so hard until his lips hurt.

It never lasts long enough to become a problem. The next day he shrugs it off and goes on with his life.

Seth misses Dean, but he’s learned to live with it and it’s fine.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Seth follows the other man where he stopped right in the middle of the room. They don’t say a word. He just watches Dean looking around until his eyes land on the Championship that’s still on the bed.

Seth is still deciding if he should kick him out or not, when Dean turns back to him and finally breaks the silence.

“Can I see it?” he asks pointing at the belt, and Seth nods without even thinkng about it.

He must be dreaming. Yeah, he must’ve fallen asleep without realizing it because this, all of this, is way too good to be true.

First Roman texts him and then Dean comes to his room and doesn’t try to murder his ass. And, deep down in his heart, he’d hoped something like this would happen. That somehow, in a moment like this, his former brothers would be happy for him despite what he did to them. In all honesty, this is probably part of the reason why he turned down the Authority’s offer to go out and celebrate. Because, in the euphory of the moment, Seth thought he could go back to the hotel and celebrate with his brothers, before remembering that he has no brothers anymore. 

As he said, happiness makes him stupid.

And now Dean is touching his brand new custom plates, tracing the SR with his thumb, and he’s _smiling _. He’s smiling like he’s proud of him. Like he’s genuinely happy that Seth finally got to the top because he knows how hard he worked his entire life for this. And no, it doesn’t make any sense.__

This is definitely a dream.

Seth feels like he should probably say something at this point, but his brain doesn’t seem to be able to form coherent toughts, and he doesn’t want to fuck up this moment. So Seth decides it’s better if he just stays silent and keeps watching. 

A few seconds later Dean speaks up again, without taking his eyes- and hands- off his title.

“Remember that bet we made after Extreme Rules?”

It sounds so random but yeah, he remembers. It was almost two years ago, when they won their first Championships in WWE. That night, after the _celebration _, they were laying together in bed, joking about who was gonna win the 'big one' first. Seth doesn’t remember who started it but it all turned into a bet in the end. He has to hide a smile at memory.__

“Yeah..” he breathes out, a bit of nostalgia in his voice. 

“Yeah.. guess I owe you ten.”

Seth huffs a laugh and shakes his head, if at Dean or himself or at this whole situation he doesn’t know.

Dean touches the belt one last time, where it says Champion, before picking it up and turning to him. And there is _something _in the way he’s looking at him, something warm, something that Seth can translate in a "You did it, buddy. I’m proud of you", and he knows he’s always been good at reading his friend.__

He hopes that hasn’t changed with time.

Dean starts to walk towards him, and Seth wants to move because he’s still not sure he won’t get punched. Unfortunately his legs don’t cooperate, and now they’re standing only a few inches apart.

Seth almost forgot how it feels to have the other man's eyes on him like that, so close that he's sure they're staring right into his soul. And he feels a shiver run down his spine.

Instead of punching him, Dean gently places the Championship on his shoulder and leaves his hand there. Seth doesn’t know what he’s doing, but it feels just _right _to raise his own hand and put it on top of Dean’s.__

A whole new wave of emotions- that Seth can’t and won’t name- rushes through him at the simple touch, and he can’t help but look at their hands, and then back at Dean, and he sees that he’s smiling. Again.

What happens next is something that makes Seth's heart almost jump out of his chest.

Dean removes his hand from his shoulder and cups his face, slowly leaning in. Seth feels his breath hitch at the realization that he's about to be kissed. Before he can react in any way, he feels warm lips on his, and freezes for a second before closing his eyes instinctively.

The kiss is sweet, delicate, different from the needy, hurried ones that they used to share before. This is something else, something more, and is making his head spin.

Seth's mind goes blank, he can’t feel anything but the soft touch of Dean’s lips and the sound of his own heartbeat.

Seth doesn’t know if he’s allowed to think about the _more _that this kiss is, but even if he could he doesn’t have the time anyway, because Dean is pulling back just enough to separate their lips, but keeps their foreheads together.__

Seth doesn’t move, talk or even think until he feels Dean whisper “Congratulations” right against his mouth. And it’s so quiet he almost doesn’t hear it. 

By the time he opens his eyes, Dean is retreating his hands and moving to walk out of the room without giving him another look.

Seth could stop him, say thank you, ask him what this was, but he doesn’t do any of that. Because already knows.

This was exactly what it looked like, no hidden meanings or anything. This was Dean telling him that he did good and that he’s proud and happy for him. Simple as that. It isn’t going to change anything, Seth is still the piece of shit that betrayed his brothers. Tomorrow everything will go back to normal. Dean’s still going to hate his guts and Roman’s still coming to get the title from him.

But tonight, even if just for some moments, they were brothers again. 

Dean and him were _something _again, and it’s enough.__


End file.
